Artist Bios
Exotic Impressions
Flute Works by Karg-Elert
Douglas Worthen began flute studies in Durham, New Hampshire with Brooks de Wetter-Smith and Katherine Borst Jones. He pursued his undergraduate work with John Wummer at the Hartt School, where he presented a number of recitals, including improvisation and avant-garde music with Tom Mariano (who later joined Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention). After graduating magna cum laude from Hartt, Worthen was awarded a full scholarship to L'Institut de Hautes Études Musicales in Montreux, Switzerland, where he studied with Maxence Larrieu and Aurèle Nicolet until the school went bankrupt. He then toured and recorded with the pop artist Leo Ferré and pursued a performing career based in Zurich, where he continued studies with André Jaunet.
Upon his return to the United States, Mr. Worthen became a proponent of the baroque flute, performing with the Quantz Baroque Trio, Boston Baroque, and the Handel and Haydn Society under the direction of Christopher Hogwood, with whom he recorded for Decca L'Oiseau Lyre. His CD recording with the Mannheim Quartet on the Titanic label received critical acclaim. Worthen's contemporary premieres include Martin Amlin's Sonata, Eliott Schwartz's Butterfly, and works by Alberto Ginastera. Mr. Worthen teaches at the New England Conservatory and the Manchester Music School and is presently an active free lance musician in the Boston area.
Born in New Jersey, pianist Janice Weber began her studies with Lucy Boyan Balakian and made her orchestral debut at the age of 12 in New York's Town Hall. A summa cum laude graduate of the Eastman School of Music, she studied with Jose Echaniz, Walter Hendel and Eugene List. She has explored many lesser-known avenues of the piano literature, in particular the works of Leopold Godowsky, whose three Strauss waltz transcriptions (as well as those of Rosenthal and Friedman) appear on her recent recording for IMP Masters. Miss Weber's world premiere recording of Liszt's 1838 version of the Transcendental Études, as well as her series of London recitals spotlighting the early, middle, and late works of this much-maligned composer, sparked unusual critical interest on both sides of the Atlantic. Miss Weber is a member of the piano faculty at the Boston Conservatory.
Richard Shaughnessy, principal clarinetist of the Nashua Symphony Orchestra and personnel manager of the Handel and Haydn Society, has performed with the Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Lyric Opera. He studied with Harold Wright at Boston University and Ithaca College, and currently teaches at the New England Conservatory Extension Division.
Richard Menual enjoys a wide-ranging career as a free lance French horn player and teacher in the Boston area. He is a member of the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, the Boston Ballet Orchestra, and the Handel and Haydn Society. He has served as Principal Horn of the Opera Company of Boston and the Albany Symphony Orchestra, and has appeared with the Boston, Syracuse and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Menual studied at Ithaca College with John Cover and at Northwestern University with Dale Clevenger. He teaches at Boston University.
